Meet the author

Shinsuke Yoshitake.

Writer & illustrator · Japan · b. 1973

Shinsuke Yoshitake: a Japanese author-illustrator whose deadpan, endlessly inventive picture books turn everyday objects into philosophical play — funny, re-readable, and quietly profound for curious 5–9s.

Shinsuke Yoshitake is a Japanese author-illustrator, born in Kanagawa in 1973, celebrated for deadpan, wildly inventive picture books that take a single ordinary thing — an apple, a bad mood, a map, a set of bad habits — and unfold it into page after page of playful, philosophical what-ifs. Working in spare, hilarious linework, he treats children as natural thinkers, sparking curiosity and conversation rather than delivering tidy lessons. His much-loved Imagination series (It Might Be an Apple, I Wonder Where I Am?) sits alongside gently profound one-offs like What Happens Next?, which meets a grandparent's death with warmth and honesty. Widely translated and much-awarded in Japan and abroad, Yoshitake makes books that reward endless re-reading and delight the grown-ups reading aloud as much as the children listening. A perfect pick for wonder-filled, question-loving young readers.